Hi Nikita,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked Stage 3: I’m actively figuring out what my interests are by trying one or more of them out in some way .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were universalism, benevolence, and self-direction.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was agreeableness.
You said your top three talents were social, artistic / spatial, and verbal.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to get into law school .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said Edit application materials .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said I’ll feel relieved. .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said Stressed for midterms .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When I get back from class on Thursday, I will work on my application materials. .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in Violin .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt Insecure when receiving critical feedback, and Insecure when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling a lot of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being law school apps .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as Something else .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to Teacher or professor .
In one word, you said it made you feel Grateful .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
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Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
| |
| "You gotta run your own race." |
| If you're procrastinating something you really want to do, write down one stupidly easy and clear next step you can take. |
| Personality is more predictive of health and wage outcomes than IQ |
| Don't quit on a bad day |
| WOOP |
| Sometimes you have to move backward to move forward |
| Be proactive, not defensive |
| supportive listening |
| Morning guy and night guy |
| the most successful people lean on others |
| Every "no" means a chance to say "yes" when it matters more |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
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| Sarah Tran |
| Nikita's presence in our team radiates positivity and charisma, establishing her as a true source of light and inspiration. Beyond her insightful contributions that deepen our group discussions, Nikita stands out for her compassion and supportive nature. She consistently helps everyone in the group maintain resilience, offering a helping hand or a thoughtful word whenever needed. Her knack for demystifying complex concepts was particularly evident when she made the dense readings from our grit lab more understandable, significantly aiding my comprehension. Nikita's infectious smile and warm demeanor not only lift spirits but also foster a nurturing and encouraging team environment.
In her Discovery project presentation, Nikita truly shined, masterfully blending humor and relatability with an insightful, thorough analysis of grit. Her ability to maintain a light-hearted yet deeply informative tone demonstrated a rare balance of wit and academic depth. She captivated the audience, injecting life and energy into her presentation. The food-themed slides were not only aesthetically pleasing but also a creative inspiration, showcasing the expansive possibilities in a Discovery project. Nikita's presentation was not just an academic exercise but a vibrant, enlightening journey, exemplifying her talent in merging intellectual rigor with a personal, compassionate touch. |
| Tanmayee Talla |
| Nikita, getting to know you this semester was a pleasure. Your energy is so calm, inviting, and grounded, and I was always excited to come to class to chat with you and the rest of our group. I appreciate your advice on classes and am wishing you the best of luck onto your journey to law school. I am really happy we got to meet, and I hope to see you more out of class:))
Regarding your Discovery Project, seeing how you transformed as a cook in the kitchen was awesome. My main takeaway from your presentation was that its important not to avoid stress. Having a growth mindset approach to tasks like cooking was something I wouldn't have thought of before. However, I now see a growth mindset as a tool I can apply to things like cooking, exercising, etc. in my own life. I also really appreciated seeing your food creations at the end of your presentation! |
| Annabel Chang |
| For Nikita:
My first impression of Nikita was that she was very kind and likeable. She has a friendly smile, and a knack for making anyone feel comfortable. She seemed to know exactly what to say to relate to everyone on our team. Most importantly, she acted as the stabilizing and responsible rock for our team. If we ever drifted away from our task, she would always gently guide us back on topic, whilst remaining amicable. From this, I could tell she was a hardworking individual. This was further confirmed when she shared her passions. She knew she wanted to work in the legal sphere, perhaps as an advocate for clean water, and I really admired her drive. Though she joked about procrastination, I knew she was likely on top of her work, something I respect greatly. It was clear that she would go very far in life. Furthermore, her dynamic with Sarah would often crack me and Tanmayee up. To me and Tanmayee, she acted like a big sister (though we are the same grade), often giving pertinent and wise life advice. Her soft-spoken and happy nature was a comfort to all of us.
Nikita spoke about wanting to learn how to cook. I also loved cooking, so during the semester we would share recipes and talk about different cuisines. She began showing us pictures of her progress, and it was clear that with deliberate practice her dishes were improving greatly. She also talked about choosing recipes she actually enjoyed making and eating, which revealed the power of “choosing easy” in helping you stay motivated. I knew she had a busy schedule, so by choosing easy she was able to integrate her project into her life. I believe her desire to learn to cook amounts to her overarching goal of maintaining a healthy and well-rounded lifestyle.
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We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.